Andrey Malanichev Answers Questions from Fans

Andrey was kind enough to perform a live AMA on Reddit during his stay in New York this past week following his world record performance. Andrey currently hold the highest raww powerlifting total with 2469.1 Lb, and the heaviest raw squat with wraps performed in competition with 1014 Lb.

During the AMA Andrey covers topics such as training philosophy, training advice, assistance work, diet, and much more.

Below you will find some of the most popular questions from the AMA.

Andrey’s Background

Loki090: What’s your story? How did you get to where you are know? When did you decide to start training and what influenced that?

I started training at 14 or 15 by accident. I was often wandering my neighborhood rooftops in Moscow. I once saw an TV antenna which was held by something like a weightlifting plate. I lifted it and did a few bicep reps. I liked the feeling and then I took two of these “plates” home and tied them to a long crowbar with cords. That was my first training weight.

I started practicing with this thing under our building’s roof (the service floor). This was a standard soviet building – it sort of looks like these “projects” you have in New York City on Lower East Side and in Brooklyn. So the neighbors didn’t like the noise and they threw me out of there but let me use the basement.

I have practiced like this on my own with a few buddies for 2 years. I even stole two buckets of yellow and blue oil-based paint from a nearby construction site so that we could paint the basement.

By the time I got to a real lifting gym at 16 (trainer Andrey Chuprin) I could bench 80kg and squat 120kg.

iorgfeflkd: Were you always strong, or did you only become strong when you started training?

I wasn’t strong at all actually. I remember being able to bench press only 50kg at first.

Andrey’s Training Philosphy

akagamisteve: Your training philosophy only in three points, said as simple as possible.

I can try to formulate it in two points:

First, I am in favor of simple training. I am skeptical of complicated “systems” and gimmicks in training, diet and lifestyle.

Second, working with extreme weights is often more psychological than physical. When I am about to lift a weight my body often tells me “Don’t do it” and I still do this anyway. I don’t like deliberating too much. I just set the weight and attack it. You need to set goals, not just train aimlessly. If you don’t have a goal or you aren’t focused on the goal you won’t achieve much. You may be doing everything right, have the right amount of strength and yet fail.

dannnyds: What do you do for warm up/mobility work?

warmup is my least favorite part of the workout. I often ignore it and suffer as a result. When I do warm up I stretch and jump rope.

Training Advice from Andrey

OneRepTwoRep: What training advice do you have for novice and intermediate lifters looking to excel at the sport?

If you had to start again from nothing, what would you do differently with the knowledge you have now?

I think I got extremely lucky with the coach and I wouldn’t change anything if I had to do it from scratch

As to beginners and intermediates. – Stay away from all gear other than the wraps. Lift raw! It’s important to build up muscles doing raw lifts – Do a lot of basic exercise – Make sure to do everything in perfect form – Do longer sets: 5-8 reps usually.

WTF-BOOM: The sheer speed in the accent of your record squat was amazing, other extraordinary strong squatters tend to grind through their lifts, yours was incredibly fast and smooth with no sticking point, what in your training to do attribute this to?

Actually, I thought I squat slowly. I don’t do anything special to squat fast. It just comes out that way…they don’t feel easy trust me. thanks!

CrazyMonkeySlapper: Do you ever actually grind out squats or would your absolute maximum squat also be explosive and smooth?

I do it with controlled speed. I think it’s dangerous when you don’t control the movements but I do not “grind” on purpose I just squat at the speed I can control.

dukieduke: What has been most effective for you when training the bench press?

I have 2 different bench presses e.g. on wednesdays I do regular bench press and on saturdays I do slingshot press

Here’s what I did when I was preparing for the last meet (in kg):

For regular press: – 120×5 reps – 140×5 reps – 160×5 – 180×5 – 200×5 – 220×2 – 240×2 – 250×1

For slingshot: – 130×3 – 160×3 – 190×3 – 220×2 – 250×2 – 270×1 – 290×1 – 305×1

Andrey’s Assistance Work

Charlitos:

What is your favorite assistance lift for squat/bench/deadlift?

i don’t have any assistance lifts. as i mentioned earlier i train very simply -just a lot of basic lift exercise.

Andrey’s Diet

Charspaz: What’s your diet like?

I eat a lot meat (prefer beef but also pork and chicken) Drink a lot of high mineral content water (they have a few brands in Russia) Potatoes, rice and pasta. The way we cook pasta in Russia is almost exactly like american mac and cheese.

Injury Prevention

vitrael: What strategies do you use to avoid injury when you are training with truly unprecedented weights like 400kg or more for reps?

its very hard to avoid injuries at such weights. To be honest I came with an injured thigh to the last meet. Trying to warm up well and using a good warm up ointment [Sombra Warm Therapy] are the only things I rely on.

Misc.

NerdMachine: What’s the heaviest thing you’ve ever lifted in your day to day life (i.e. not a barbell in a gym)?

Joke: my girlfriend 🙂

Seriously speaking, I actually had to move cars out of the way. You know, when someone blocks the exit I had to lift the front or the back of someone’s car to clear the way.

 

gzcl: What metal besides Iron Maiden do you listen to?

Slayer / Megadeth / Metallica /

xcforlife: Who is your favorite athlete of all time? (any sport)

Michael Jordan he is the greatest

simouradian: What’s next from you, Malanichev? What keeps you motivated and what is the next record you want to break?

I wanna beat my own records and maybe a few in raw classic. As to motivation – I can’t even tell you what drives me – I just love doing this.

sconnie64: What was the first time you thought to your self “damn I’m stronger than average”

never thought about it. everybody is good at something

Tips from Andrey

• i often see people trying to work with heavier weights than they should. i can tell that because they lose the form, which is potentially harmful
• Rethink your training routine. [when a lift, or progress stalls]
• Genetics is very important but character is even more so

You can read Andrey’s full AMA at www.reddit.com